


Caged

by Shastelly



Series: Shastelly’s Bad Things Happen Bingo [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gen, Hurt Pidge | Katie Holt, Locked in a Cage, Pidge | Katie Holt Angst, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 05:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18866572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shastelly/pseuds/Shastelly
Summary: Pidge finds herself locked away, observed, alone, and fighting to make it through with her mind and body intact.Rating is mostly for Pidge's potty mouth :)Bad Things Happen Bingo Request - Pidge Locked in a cage





	Caged

They were watching. They were always watching. She ran a hand through her hair tugging on the strands.

"Nothing to see hear, nothing to hear, go away." She spun around and pulled her marker out and began scribbling on another section of the wall. "Why isn't n bigger than three? It should make sense. It should be easy, simple equation simple proof." She huffed in frustration, there were three walls filled with calculations. As far up as she could reach to as far down as the floor.

"Oh, I haven't written on the floor, so much room." She grinned and danced around the room, hugging herself, she'd been worried that when she ran out of wall space, she wouldn't have anything to do anymore. Proving math's unprovable theorem seemed like a good use of her time. 

"It's not like this food is food. This food is a much better marker." She wrinkled her nose at the black substance wrapped in a piece of blanket. If she wrapped it tight enough, she could write relatively small on the wall. She didn't know how long she'd been here. In this room with six walls and no doors. The food appeared when she slept. The other things had too.

The room had a small bed with a pillow and a blanket. They had appeared on the second day, or at least after the second sleep, she was just calling them days, though considering how long she could stay awake she couldn't really be sure that it was a day and not more than a day or two or three.

"Three, can't be bigger than three. Why not? I don't know." She tugged at her hair again and squeezed her arm with her other hand until it hurt. No one talked to her here, just her. No one touched her, expect those rat things the one day, she still had bites. She'd woken to them crawling on her and around her room, on her walls and her proof and it wasn't right. They weren't supposed to eat her work, so she'd knocked them down, but they didn't like that, they'd hissed, and bit and she had to kick and claw and stomp until they stopped biting her.

The room had a bucket the first day. She had to take a shit on a bucket, and they had watched. Fuckers. She knew they watched. They always watched. She had taken a piece of her pants to wipe. It was gross, it was really gross by the third sleep. By the fourth sleep they put in a sink, she was able to wash, able to wash the rag, the bucket was emptied. They must be able to smell.

"I wonder if they think this food smells good. Hunk would be so upset with them. He would buy them something good, some vanilla or cinnamon. Maybe if they had better food, they would be happier, happier and nicer." She hissed at the walls and the people watching behind the walls. "It's not nice to stare!" She yelled and laughed until she cried. 

She had cried a lot on the fifth day. The sixth day she had started the theorem work. It occupied her mind, kept away the silence as long as she talked to herself. She shivered and rubbed her hands on her arms. Sometimes it was hot and sometimes it was cold. Once the air had changed and she had thought she was going to suffocate. Once she'd gotten all dizzy and sweaty after drinking the water and had taken off all of her clothes. She'd woken with a change of clothes and cursed them until she was blue in the face. How dare they look at her! They had not touched her though. Somehow that was good and bad. Good she wasn't hurt, bad that they didn't care enough to hurt her, or something like that.

"They will come for me you know. They will come. They will come. They'll be coming ‘round the mountain when they come, they'll be coming ‘round the mountain when they come. They'll be coming ‘round the mountain, they'll be coming ‘round the mountain, they'll be coming ‘round the mountain when they come. They'll be driving giant lions when they come." She couldn't help dissolving into laughter at that point. She laid on the ground and laughed. Who would fly green? Matt? Maybe or maybe Lance? He wasn't as analytical, but he was definitely curious. "Curious is a weird word. It can be inquisitive or just weird. Lance is both." She giggled again. She wondered what they'd put in the water this time.

Before she curled up to sleep on the floor, she made another mark on the floor, twelve sleeps. 

When she woke there was another bowl of black goo and a piece of green bread. The bread wasn't moldy just green. She had been put back in the bed and covered with the blanket. Her head was on the pillow. She remembers falling asleep on the floor. She never sleeps on her back; how do they make her do that. She always curls up to sleep. She always has, since she was a baby. So why did she wake up laying on her back. She screams. 

"I HATE YOU!" 

It doesn’t make her feel better. She picked up the green bread and nibbled at the edges. It tasted like broccoli. She didn't like broccoli. It was better than the black goo that she used to make her marker. 

"I am Pidge. I am Katie. I am the Green Paladin of Voltron. I am sixteen. I am a genius. I am going to kick your asses when I get out of here." Every morning she reminded herself. She was sure it was crazy, but it didn't matter, she was sure she'd be even more crazy if she didn't do it. She ate about half the bread. She dumped the black goo onto the floor and took the bowl to the sink. She rinsed it clean and filled it with water to drink. She drank it slowly. She'd refused to after the whole clothes things, but water was required to live. And living was required to get out and she was going to get out of here, somehow.

She took her shit rag and used the bucket. She'd stopped blushing on day seven. Fuck them, she wasn't going to let them embarrass her for what she had to do. After that she fished yesterday's marker out from under the bed. The black goo had become solid. She dumped it in the bucket and took the piece of blanket and dropped some fresh goo into it. She rolled it up tight and laid it down. It would need to set up a little to be really useful. 

She set on the floor and began stretching. She did leg and back stretches. She did backbends and wall sits. She did leg lifts and some yoga and whatever else her mind could come up with to keep her body moving in her stupid little cage. And then it was back to Fermat and his damn last theorem. She was going to crack this or maybe she was cracked. Hunk would have laughed at her joke. She imagined how he would sound and the smile he would give her. She picked up her marker and started working where she had left off.

Sometime before she was too tired to sleep a sound started up in her room, at first soft, like wind blowing or buzzing, the louder and louder, like a siren wailing. It was started to make it hard to concentrate. She grabbed the pillow and held it over her ears. It kept going getting louder and louder until it hurt. Her ears pounded and she screamed, but she couldn't hear her own voice over the sound. She filled the sink with water and stuck her head in it and even the water couldn't keep the sound out. She fell to her knees screaming and crying with the pain when it suddenly crescendoed and then silence. She felt warmth run from her ears. She touched it and brought it in front of her face, blood. She blinked at the dizziness and laid down on the floor. They had burst her ear drums. She realized she'd smeared the black goo all over herself and the floor, but it didn't matter. She had no idea how long the sounds had lasted, but she was exhausted. The pain and dizziness were making her nauseous and she just wanted to lay down and close her eyes. She crawled over to the bed and made her mark for the day and scouted under the bed to sleep, feeling more covered.

She woke after sleep thirteen laid in the bed again. Something cottony was stuffed in her ears. She tugged at it gently but it seemed taped in place, so she just left it. She still felt dizzy today, so she thought maybe she'd just take the day off and stay in bad.

"Lance would approve of taking the day off. He'd say Pidge, you work too hard, you need a break. Shiro would say, Pidge you can't do it all. Hunk would tell me to take care of myself. Allura would smile and tell me I deserve the break. Keith would punch my arm and tell me I do too much already. Coran would bring me an extra blanket." She had the same food again today and went through the routine of eating and drinking and taking care of bodily needs and mental needs.

"I am Pidge. I am Katie. I am the Green Paladin of Voltron. I am sixteen. I am a genius." After that she went ahead and made another mark and curled up into the bed to sleep this day away.

On day fifteen she woke to complete darkness. She didn't know if they had done something to make her blind or what, but that combined with her impaired hearing was too much. She snapped. She screamed and kicked at anything she could feel. She threw things and banged her fist into the walls and in general had a bit of a breakdown. She only stopped when she managed to slam the bed against the wall and produce a spark. A spark she could see. She took a deep breath. It was just darkness. Her eyes were fine. They were just messing with her. She curled onto the floor, pulling her knees in tight and wrapping her arms around them. She rocked herself back and forth and hummed as loud as she could. She couldn't hear it clearly, but she could feel the vibrations. She hummed until she fell asleep again.

About three sleeps later her hearing seemed to be back, and the cotton fluff was out of her ears. The fourth wall was filled with writing as the lights had slowly returned over the last two days. She held one arm around her body and rocked back and forth on her feet muttering and mumbling over the lines of her proof. It seemed close. She felt like she was missing something though.

"Pidgey, let me take a look at it."

"Lance, you are not going to know if it's wrong." She muttered.

"I might?" Hunk offered.

"I don't even think it's English." Keith glared at it from across the room.

"Well you can't fight it." Lance laughed.

"I can fight you!" Keith growled.

"Boys." Shiro sighed.

"You are all very noisy." Pidge huffed. "I've almost got this."

"Look at your little primitive brain work!" Coran cooed.

"Pidge can I use your crayon? I want to draw pictures." Lance grabbed the marker and started making flowers on the floor. "Look it's a flower garden. You might as well have some place to relax."

"Let me have that." Keith snatched the marker and drew two people fighting with swords.

"Keith, how is that relaxing?" Hunk huffed.

"It relaxes me." Keith shrugged and handed Hunk the marker.

Hunk drew cookies and Shiro drew trees. Allura drew some kind of animal and Coran drew the castle. Pidge still couldn't find the error in her proof.

The next morning, she woke in the bed again and the floor was decorated with her team’s drawings, but she remembered they weren't there, and she wondered who had made them. 

"I am Pidge. I am Katie. I am the Green Paladin of Voltron."

"Pidge?" Lance carded his hand through her hair brushing it from the sweaty forehead. "What's wrong?"

"What day is it?" Pidge blinked, she felt weak. She wondered if there was something in the water again.

"I don't know we forgot to mark them for a while." Lance sighed and pulled her close. 

"I miss you." She sniffled and leaned into him.

"I'm right here."

"No, you aren't." She blinked and he was gone. Her arm wrapped around herself and her body pressed against the wall. 

"I am Pidge."

She really doesn't know how much time passed. She couldn't focus. She felt weak and sweaty. She walked around the cell mumbling to herself, holding her arms tight against her body, patting her arms ever once and awhile as if to remember she was still there.

The walls shook and she scrambled away from them and hid under the bed. Her proof crumbled and there standing in the rubble was Shiro. 

"Pidge?" He asked, leaning into the cell.

"I am Pidge. Who am I?" She muttered from under the bed.

"Pidge?" Lance climbed past Shiro and onto the floor, looking around the room at the whatever it was smearing the walls in math and the floor in childlike drawings. "Hey Pidgey."

"You aren't real." She sighed and hugged herself tighter.

"We are." Hunk was there too then, reaching out to her. "Take my hand?"

"Take it where?" Pidge laughed. "I've gone insane. I'm making Lance jokes with imaginary people."

"Hey!" Lance looked offended.

"Don't worry, real Lance won't mind. He likes his silly jokes." She comforted.

"I do like my jokes." Lance huffed.

"I miss them." A tear slides down her cheek.

"I'm right here."

"No, you aren't." She sighs.

"Yes, I am." He reaches under the bed and she jumps as his hand touches her. That has not happened before. She looks at him bewildered.

"Lance?!" She cries. "Hunk?!" She scrambles out from under the bed and launches herself at them. Pressing as close as she can for fear that even though they feel solid they might not be real.

"I've got her armor and bayard." Keith comes running up to the opening. "Is she okay?"

Shiro smiles softly and meets her eyes from where she is currently cradled between the two boys, "She will be."

Pidge nods. She will be okay. She is Pidge. She is Katie. She is the Green Paladin. She is a genius. She owes some aliens an ass kicking.


End file.
